Suffolk News-Herald

Do you remember the last year that the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy (NSA) softball team DIDN’T win the TCIS tournament title?

No? Don’t worry. Neither does team head coach Pat Muldoon.

&uot;We’ve won it every year since I came here seven years ago, and people told me that we’d won it for years before that,&uot; said Muldoon, whose team finished 10-0 in TCIS competition this season and charged past Catholic and Greenbrier Christian to take the conference title last weekend.

That’s not to say that things were always easy for the Lady Saints in 2002-3. After losing six players to the varsity squad before the season, the team could have seen it as a rebuilding year. Instead, said catcher Hannah Trostle, &uot;We started reloading. It just seemed like more of a challenge.&uot;

That wasn’t evident on Friday night, as NSA charged past an overmatched Catholic 15-0 in the semifinals.

&uot;We were happy about that, because we knew that we’d win the championship.&uot;

Still, host Greenbrier Chris-tian was an all-too-eager roadblock; the host Lady Gators jumped out to leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in Saturday’s championship game. &uot;We were nervous because we weren’t playing as well as we usually do, at least not at that point,&uot; said Ellen Giermak.

On the NSA mound, Ashley Brinkley tried to keep her head (and her pitches) straight.

&uot;I was agitated, because the same girls were getting hits off me,&uot; said Brinkley, the ace of the young Lady Saints. &uot;But I was comfortable, because I knew that my teammates had my back.&uot;

That was proven true in the fifth inning, as Brinkley, Kadena Kulnis, Skye Bissett and Ellen Giermak crossed the plate to give the Lady Saints an insurmountable 6-2 lead, bringing them yet another championship (they became the school’s second

junior varsity squad to win consecutive titles in a week, as the young boys’ lacrosse team took its second-straight title on April 12).